5 Unusual Ways Animals Were Weaponized In WW2

during times of war armies are forced to consider any and all technologies and strategies no matter how strange or unusual as they seek to obtain an advantage over their enemies this unending search for an edge on the battlefield has resulted in militaries enlisting animals into their ranks for thousands of years using them for transport communication and companionship while sometimes even deploying them directly into battle with two sides engaged in a titanic struggle for survival the Second World War took the weaponization of animals to another level giving birth to some strange and often bizarre plans and projects as each side desperately sought to turn the tide of war in their favor here are my choices for five of the most unusual ways animals bought weaponized in World War two number five the d-day paradox during the Second World War the Allies plan to invade mainland Europe was a risky gamble aimed at bringing the costly war to a swift end yet as the largest Armada of ships ever assembled poured its cargo of hundreds of thousands of soldiers onto the beaches of Normandy the skies above were also dotted with countless aircraft dropping thousands more paratroopers behind enemy lines these highly trained specialists tasked with seizing strategic locations and slowing down enemy reinforcements in a valiant effort to buy the ground invasion forces behind them enough time to establish a secure beachhead yet with perhaps the very outcome of the entire war a stake the German forces on the ground gazing nervously at the skies above would have been met with the surprising and unusual sight of not only men gliding down to engage them but also dogs as highly-trained former pets willingly let but from the aircraft and independently parachuted down under a storm of anti-aircraft fire ready to play their own unique but fight or role in the liberation of Europe that would follow the battalion who deployed these canine warriors taking the phrase let slip the dogs of war quite literally the bond between man and dog is deep and ancient and humans have kept the animals as companions for many thousands of years however adults unique abilities coupled with its unbreakable loyalty to his master has also led to the species exploitation with many civilizations deploying dogs during of war our scouts sentries trackers and messengers while some even send them directly into battle to attack the enemy with their powerful jaws and flesh tearing teeth yet such widespread use in warfare also placed the animals in immense danger and incredibly during the four bitter years of World War one an estimated 1 million military dogs were killed in action with such a long and proven history of use in warfare it's no surprise that when the Second World War is unleashed upon the world militaries on both sides were keen to exploit animals in any way possible to obtain an edge over their rivals in Britain a call went out to the nation in May 1941 as posters and radio announcements pleaded for dog owners to contribute their pets towards the war effort a call which in ordinary times might have been ignored but with many struggling to feed themselves let alone their pets an incredible 7,000 dogs were volunteered within just two weeks while these ex pets would be utilized in a variety of roles Lance Corporal Kenneth Bailey was instructed to handpick and train a small number of the enlisted dogs to be used by the 13th parachute battalion during the planned d-day landings where the battalion faced the grim task of parachuting in behind enemy lines to carry out missions that could make or break the entire invasion and thus the war itself with such a heavy burden of responsibility the paratroopers involved in the drops would need every tool at their disposal if they were to stand any chance of success and so it was decided that on d-day the battalion should have with them a small number of dogs to act as the superhuman eyes and ears on the ground the dogs undertook a rigorous training program that told them how to track down enemy soldiers and silently alert their handlers about nearby mines or a hostile presence ahead preventing the men being ambushed and killed or captured training them to detect the smells of explosives and gunpowder as well as getting them used to the loud noises and chaos likely to be present on the battlefield yet planners faced one major problem how do you convince a dog to willingly jump out of an aircraft flying hundreds of feet in the air to overcome this hurdle an elaborate training regime was created with the goal of gradually getting the dogs used to an airborne environment while at the same time convincing them to associate the jump with feeding before each training jump they wouldn't have been fed for several hours so that by the time they were airborne the prospect of receiving a juicy steak would make them far more cooperative and open to new experiences the docks were fitted with parachutes which were rigged to open automatically as they exited the aircraft a feat which ordinarily they would be unwilling to perform however after seeing the handlers jump from the aircraft while carrying bones meat and other treats the hungry dog soon required no coaxing whatsoever to voluntarily follow the handler out of the aircraft where they would be fed whatever he was carrying once they landed when d-day finally arrived these unusual paradox jumped under the same chaotic and dangerous conditions as their human allies dropping down under heavy fire with many ending up tangled in trees or suffering terrible injuries from water and shell fire targeted at the landing zones yet despite such hazards they performed their assigned roles undaunted using the height and abilities to sense danger to sniff out land mines booby traps and enemy ambush teams shrouded in the surrounding darkness as well as providing comfort and companionship to the stress troops especially during rest breaks where the men could sleep soundly safe in the knowledge that should any strangers approach the canine comrades would alert them to the threat and some sources even credit the paradox with saving hundreds of allied lives many of the paradox would see further action as the Allies pushed into Germany with some even being decorated with specially created awards for animal valor however when the war finally drew to an end most of the dogs who had served their masters so faithfully were callously disposed off with the bolt gun to the head as military assets that were now no longer required number four the bat bomb defeating Imperial Japan with bomb carrying bats designed by a Pennsylvania dentist sounds like the plot of a low-budget movie however it was actually a strategy that the US military took seriously and one that was proven to work surprisingly well during testing as what became known as project x-ray poured millions of dollars into developing a giant bomb containing thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats which when dropped above Japan's sprawling and largely wooden constructed cities would release the flying mammals into the dawn sky each one in search of darkened rooftops and eaves to escape the coming daylight where they would carry with them a small incendiary device on a timer thus unleashing thousands of fires simultaneously across the diameter of some 40 miles this unconventional weapon reducing entire cities to little more than ash and in doing so forcing the Japanese to surrender when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December the 7th 1941 Pennsylvania dentist dr. Lytle Adams had only recently returned home from a vacation to New Mexico like many Americans Adams was outraged by the attack and immediately put his mind to work on how he might contribute to the American war effort recalling the part of his vacation which involved a trip to Carlsbad cavern Adams was struck by the sight of millions of bats roosting in the caves and noted how keenly they sought out small darkened spaces in which to shelter during daylight at this time most people in the West were well aware that Japanese cities were densely packed with buildings usually constructed from highly flammable materials like paper bamboo and wood with each building containing plenty of darkened crevices that a bat might like to hide in from the Sun and so with this realization Adams put two and two together and came up with an unusual plan to weaponize bats in a way which might very well end the war quickly and with minimal loss of life he drew up a detailed proposal one submitted it to the White House where with the costly war threatening to drag on for many years he found the authorities hungry for new ideas which might enable them to take the fight to the enemy by damaging the cities and economy and in January 1942 President Rousseff L personally authorized further development of what was now known as project x-ray the bomb design called for an outer casing to be constructed which held 26 stacked trays with each tray containing 40 individual compartments each one housing that which had been put into hibernation by exposing it to cold temperatures the inventor of military napalm designed a one-ounce timed incendiary device which could be tied to the bats while the Mexican free-tailed bat was the chosen species thanks to its possession of four biological attributes which made them ideal for their assigned mission firstly the bats could be found within the US easily and in huge numbers with just a few known caves estimated to hold millions enabling them to be sourced without trouble secondly the bats were strong enough to carry items greater than their own bodyweight making it possible for them to still fly even with the bombs attached thirdly they could be put into hibernation easily by exposing them to the cord making fitting them with bombs and transporting them a simple task with no need to provide food or care while fourthly the bats flew in darkness and naturally sought out secluded places to hide in daylight meaning that they would instinctively seek out small crevices in the roofs of the hundreds of thousands of buildings that made up a Japanese city simultaneously delivering their destructive payloads dropped from the bahá at dawn the outer casing would open and release the trays carrying the bats which by now had awoken from hibernation free once again the bats would disperse across a 40 mile radius and as the Sun began to rise would seek shelter from daylight deep within the city's houses barns and factories where they would rest until the incendiary devices attached to them ignited beginning a simultaneous citywide inferno that the Japanese would be unable to cope with due to its sheer scale the chaos and destruction unleashed made far worse by the fact that Japanese construction methods tended to favor highly flammable materials such as bamboo paper and wood meaning that even just a few of the bat bombs finding their mark could cause fires to rage out of control turning an entire city to ash in a single night testing conducted by the military proved that the idea could work with one accident at an Air Force Base in New Mexico demonstrating just how destructive the weapon could be when armed bat bombs were accidentally released the bats roosting under a giant fuel tank with explosive results that incinerated the entire test range in a shocking example of just how efficient and destructive the strategy could be more successful tests followed however with two million dollars already spent and a working prototype unlikely to be ready before mid 1945 the decision was made to focus entirely on the Manhattan Project and the creation of a working nuclear bomb which was already nearing completion this new weapon being credited with ending the war yet with an immense loss of life that Adams would later assert could have been avoided had his bat bombs been used instead believing that these unusual weaponized animals could have brought Japan to his knees with minimal casualties number three the anti-tank dogs parachuting dogs on d-day wasn't the only time that man's suppose it best friend saw unusual action during the Second World War far away on the Eastern Front the Soviets were also dabbling with new ways of using dogs in combat in a desperate attempt to swing the tide of battle in their favor as the unstoppable German war machine relentlessly surged East facing superior tactics and weaponry and with German forces rapidly approaching Moscow a wide range of desperate measures were considered as waves of millions of men were thrown against the enemy yet with such a large-scale sacrifice of soldiers proving ineffective new tactics began to be developed with one of the wars most unusual strategies being the mobilization and training of thousands of dogs to be used as mobile living and breathing anti-tank weapons the faithful canines taught to sniff out enemy Armour and deliver the fatal payload of explosives underneath the Panzers which were proving to be so formidable however while this plan to use dogs as mines might have seemed simple on paper in reality things would not go as planned dogs had been approved for military use in the Soviet Union since 1924 when a training school was set up in Moscow to provide the Red Army with dogs that could perform a wide range of tasks including everything from search and rescue to delivery of medicine and ammunition mine detection and even transporting injured soldiers on sleds and 12 more schools would eventually be opened to keep up with demand with three specialising in the concept of using dogs equipped with explosives to destroy enemy facilities vehicles and armored units with the German invasion of the USSR in 1941 this idea of using dogs as mobile anti-tank weapons gained traction as the Soviet army seemed incapable of halting the relentless German advance across the entire Eastern Front as the superior German tanks spearheaded an invasion which threatened to swamp the entire country desperate for some way to counter these devastating waves of enemy armor the training schools began churning out thousands of so-called anti-tank dogs which was hoped might prove to be an effective and low cost low-tech way of destroying enemy tanks and thus slowing down and even repelling the invasion altogether the plan was relatively simple as with the previously mentioned paradox hunger would be the primary tool used to coax the dogs into performing the tasks required off them though selected for training would first be denied food and when they were deemed to be sufficiently starved cooked meat would be placed on the underside of tanks which the ravenous dogs would easily sniff out and quickly run towards at first that hank's were kept silent and still so is not a frightened but gradually more realism would be introduced by turning on the engines then adding background gunfire and explosions as well as other loud and disturbing noises that the dogs would likely encounter on a live battlefield this detailed routine taught the dogs to associate the noisy hulking tanks with food so that in a combat situation they would run underneath enemy Armour without hesitation the original plan was to fit the dogs with an explosive mine which could be released once underneath the tank enabling the dog to run back to his handler and safety with the mine being detonated remotely or fire a small timer however tests of this technique proved to be unsuccessful as very few of the dogs were able to master the more complicated task of pulling on a belt with her teeth to release the bomb strapped to their back at the right time with many dogs becoming confused and returning to the handlers with the deadly payload still armed and ready to explode posing a serious risk of friendly fire the decision was made to simplify the deployment process however in doing so the dogs now became disposable each dog was fitted with a 26 pound bomb connected to a spring mounted wooden lever around 8 inches in height which would be pushed down causing the mine to detonate as the dog crawled under the tank creating a massive explosion in the tanks least armoured and most vulnerable area either destroying or disabling the tank but also killing the dog in the process with training complete the first batch of anti-tank dogs who are sent into action however once again serious problems were exposed in order to save fuel many of the animals had been trained using tanks which were stationary with the engines idle and serving combat they proved unwilling to run onto any of the armored monsters that were moving either waiting alongside the tanks only to be picked off by German gunfire or running back to their handlers and often detonating their minds against their own side as they jumped into Soviet trenches to make matters even worse the Soviets had trained the dogs using their own diesel-powered tanks whereas the German tanks used gasoline engines a difference which was noted by the dogs with their keen sense of smell resulting in them preferring to run under the familiar Russian tanks instead of the strange smelling German ones causing several instances of the dogs bombing their own side in fact out of the first group of 30 anti-tank dogs just four managed to detonate their payload anywhere near German vehicles with three shot before they could find their mark and another six exploding in Soviet trenches as the dog tried to return to his handler killing and injuring several Red Army soldiers in the process number 2 rat bombs the British Special Operations Executive became well known for developing bizarre and outlandish weapons during World War two including exploding gun dynamite vegetables and pipe daggers with the organization being the inspiration for James Bond and the plethora of strange gadgets he utilized yet in 1941 with Britain isolated from a German occupied Europe the SOE began work on one of the strangest weapons to date which despite sounding nothing short of ridiculous actually had sound logic behind it as experiments began on turning the commonly found rat into an explosive device that could [ __ ] German industry and seriously hamper the war effort wreaking havoc behind enemy lines without needing to risk precious manpower which the besieged British could ill afford to lose with the sudden fall of France in the summer of 1940 Britain found herself standing alone against Germany a nation whose revolutionary military tactics had swept aside the armies of her foes and conquered much of the European continent British forces stationed in France had proved unable to stem the Lightning German advance and only managed to avoid complete annihilation thanks to the incredible evacuation effort at Dunkirk which spirited away over 300,000 soldiers a force which represented the core of the British military and although a large portion of her army had returned home to safety they have little realistic chance of taking the war back to the Germans any time soon instead forced to defend their Island from a German invasion which now seemed inevitable yet Prime Minister Winston Churchill was unwilling to just defend and wait and promised to take the fight back to the Germans yet with any conventional military assault on German occupied soil little more than a pipe dream what became known as the Special Operations Executive was set up in an effort to hit back at the enemy this covert organization using a variety of unorthodox weapons gadgets and strategies to help European resistance movements carry out sabotage and subversion against occupying forces this desire to go on the offensive assured in the development of a whole slew of weapons that on the surface sound nothing short of bizarre but upon closer inspection were surprisingly effective with one of the most unusual of these being the exploding rat so as not to draw any suspicion or unwanted attention sov agents posing as scientists obtained hundreds of Rodin's which they claimed they needed for experimentation and in secret began work on this strange but potentially lethal device first skinning the dead rats then stuffing the hollow car with explosives the idea was to supply resistance fighters across Europe with these explosive filled rats which the agents on the ground would discreetly drop on the floor near boiler rooms and furnaces at factories power stations and other German occupied facilities across the continent when the seemingly innocent and commonly found dead rats were discovered they would usually be disposed off by being thrown into the nearest fire which could cause the explosives hidden inside the rat carcass to detonate yet although the amount of explosives that could be hidden inside the rats was relatively small it was theorized that the subsequent explosion could be big enough to penetrate the highly pressurized boilers triggering an even larger explosion that would cause extensive damage or perhaps even completely destroyed the facility if these rat bombs could find their way into every armaments factory and power station used by the Germans the resulting chaos would seriously hamper the war effort perhaps even altering the outcome of the entire war despite such high hopes the explosive rats never saw real-world use after the first shipment of resistance fighters was intercepted by a German agents however incredibly the dead rodents still fulfilled their original purpose of disrupting the German economy fearful that thousands of the simple yet effective bombs had already fallen into the hands of the resistance the Germans wasted vast amounts of resources conducting a lengthy continent-wide surge as facilities were scoured for the weaponized rodents just in case one of the bombs had found its way inside leading the SOE to conclude that the operation had caused the enemy more trouble than if the rats had actually been used for their original purpose number one project pigeon the idea of putting pigeons in control of or 1000-pound a bomb were ordinarily be dismissed as an irresponsible recipe for disaster however with the United States in a fight which could spell doom for the entire nation any idea that might give them a tactical edge was being considered and in an era before a GPS and laser-guided technology a serious attempt was actually made to develop a pigeon guided bomb whereby the common pigeons impressive eyesight trainability and ten see to stay calm under pressure would be taken advantage of to enable missiles and bombs to more accurately find their targets placing as many as three of the birds inside the nosecone of bombs where they would guide them to their chosen target by furiously pecking at display screens with their beaks utilizing an early precursor to the modern touch screen technology so commonly used today in phones tablets and laptops during the Second World War bombing accuracy was measured in miles with most falling far away from their intended targets causing widespread collateral damage as well as wasting vast amounts of desperately needed military resources in an age before the invention of precise laser targeting and GPS massive bombing fleets containing hundreds or even thousands of bombers flying in formation were used to carpet-bomb the location in order to ensure that just a small number of enemy targets were destroyed unsurprisingly the air force was hungry for a way to increase bombing accuracy as doing so would mean that less bombers would be required permission enabling them to use their limited resources to hit greater numbers of targets and therefore obtain a massive military and economic advantage over their rivals but at a time when the first computers were massive inefficient contraptions such a goal seemed to be far out of their reach however when the noted behaviorist BF Skinner came forward with a bizarre plan to use live pigeons as the guidance system for massive 1,000 pound bombs rather than simply laughing him out of the room he was given the green light to pursue his unusual but potentially world-changing idea as a pioneer in the field of behaviorism Skinner had already developed methods that allowed him to train animals to perform certain tasks using food as a reward mechanism and he became convinced that he could harness the natural cognitive abilities of pigeons and train them to guide missiles and bombs to their targets with an incredible degree of accuracy in doing so making a valuable contribution to the American war effort easy to Train possessing excellent eyesight and able to recognize visual patterns the commonly found and easily obtainable pigeon was the perfect candidate for thing with Skinner confident that he could train the birds to recognize a military target and to peck at it when it was displayed on a visual screen by placing pigeons inside a gliding missile and training them to peck at touch sensitive screens connected to the missiles flight controls the pecking of the pigeons would in theory constantly adjust the flight path of the missile if it started astray from his path enabling it to hit enemy targets with incredible precision and accuracy Skinner purchased some pigeons and began a basic but effective training program teaching the birds to recognize the pattern of a target and to peck whenever they saw the target by providing them a food reward with each successful Peck by gradually increasing the time lag between the peck and the food reward he managed to train the birds to constantly peck at the image as it moved around eventually able to make them peck non-stop as many as 10,000 times over a 45 minute period which was long enough for a gliding bomb to reach its target when inside the bomb the pigeons would face a primitive version of a touchscreen onto which a magnified image of the ground below was projected when they saw the target they had been trained to recognize they would begin pecking at it the constant contacts with the screen sending electrical signals to the bombs guidance system should the bomb begin to stray off target the image would move from the center towards the edge of the screen causing the pigeons to track this movement with their beaks a change that built-in sensors would register causing the bomb to steer back towards the intended target the pigeons constantly realigning the bomb as it fell towards the ground enabling it to score an accurate hit but killing the camicazi pigeons in the process Skinner secured funding from the military and early testing proved his Theory's correct with the pigeons ready missing their targets however perhaps nervous of the idea of entrusting dangerous weaponry to birds and believing that the money could be better spent elsewhere the plan was scrapped in favor of other projects deemed more promising and despite the project being looked at again by the Navy in 1948 the dawn of computer guided systems would finally render the idea of using animals in this way obsolete so those are my choices for five unusual ways animals were weaponized in World War two let me know your thoughts in the comments below and I'll see you again soon

Channel: Unknown5

Views: 200,108

Rating: 4.7206917 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, history, unknown5, top 5, top five, list videos, ww2, second world war, world war 2, world war two, military, animals, pets, dogs, Paradogs, Anti Tank Dogs, Project Pigeon, military history, world history, entertainment, education, documentaries, history documentaries

Id: VA1zzYWVS58

Length: 26min 40sec (1600 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 10 2018